hello, group.
I have a question...
my sour cherry wine is very clear....

i want to finish and bottle it.

It definitely has that cherry taste, but I wanted to know
how most of you who've ever made such a wine have finished it (please don't
say: "I drank it! lol)
I know it's usually according to taste,
but I would like a bit of a target to shoot for.
Is a wine like that best finished off as semi-dry? semi-sweet?

Thanks in advance.
Rick
Fremont, Mi

In article >, "Rick Vanderwal" > wrote:
>hello, group.
>I have a question...
>my sour cherry wine is very clear....
>
>i want to finish and bottle it.
>
>It definitely has that cherry taste, but I wanted to know
>how most of you who've ever made such a wine have finished it (please don't
>say: "I drank it! lol)
>I know it's usually according to taste,
>but I would like a bit of a target to shoot for.
>Is a wine like that best finished off as semi-dry? semi-sweet?

I made a few gallons of sour cherry wine five years ago, fermented it to
complete dryness, and divided it into two batches for bulk aging: one gallon
with a single cinnamon stick in the bottom of the jug, and three gallons
simply left alone.

Prior to bottling, I divided the three-gallon batch in half and sweetened one
half, leaving the other half completely dry. I also sweetened the gallon that
had the cinnamon stick. (And added small amounts of sorbate to prevent
refermentation.)

All three are very, very good. The batch that had the cinnamon tastes like a
liquid cherry pie. My favorite is the dry version, while my wife prefers one
of the sweetened ones. All a matter of personal preference.

Hope this helps...

hmmmm,
well, like you, I have four gallons.
I'm not sure about the cinnamon stick...
but I think I will split them up and try some varioius levels of sweetening.
Have to sorbate it first.

Thanks!

In article >, "Rick Vanderwal" > wrote:
>hmmmm,
>well, like you, I have four gallons.
>I'm not sure about the cinnamon stick...

Yeah, I wasn't sure about the cinnamon stick either, that's why I did it with
just one gallon instead of the whole batch. I'll probably treat the whole
batch that way next time, though.

Maybe even this year... We moved to a new house in '99, so I lost my sour
cherry tree. We planted one at the new house right away, and last year it
produced enough fruit for a couple of pies. I'm hoping this year to get enough
to make wine again.

>but I think I will split them up and try some varioius levels of sweetening.
>Have to sorbate it first.

Definitely. It's sooooooo good, the last thing you want to do is have the
bottles explode when it referments.
>
>Thanks!

Glad to help. Good luck with it!